They are loaded with round shot to keep a vessel from approaching, though of course they could fire grape into any boats they saw coming in.' "'This does not seem an easy business by any means, Mr.Earnshaw,' the captain said.
"'It does not, sir,' the lieutenant agreed in a dubisome sort of way; 'but no doubt it can be done, sir--no doubt it can be done.' "'Yes, but how ?' the captain asked.

'You will be in command of the boats, Mr.Earnshaw, and it will never do to attack such a place as that without some sort of plan.' "'What is the boom like, my lad ?' the lieutenant asked; 'is it lashed together ?' "'No, it is a solid spar,' I said.

'The entrance is not more than forty feet wide, and the boom is part of the mainmast of a big ship.' "'It seems to me,' said the lieutenant, 'that the only way to get at it would be to go straight at the boom, the two lightest boats to go first.
The men must get on the spar and pull the boats over, and then make a dash for the batteries; the heavy boats can follow them.' "'It would never do, Mr.Earnshaw,' the captain said.

'You forget there are twelve guns loaded to the muzzle with grape and musketballs all trained upon a point only forty feet across.

Would it be possible to land just outside the boom, lad, on one or both sides, and to keep along the edge, or wade in the water to the batteries ?' "'No, sir, the rock goes straight up from the water both sides.' "'Well, the two sentries, how do they get down to the water's edge ?' "'They are let down by rope from above, sir, and the rope is hauled up as soon as they are down.' "'This is a deuce of a place, Mr.Earnshaw,' the captain said.